Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Left Hand of DOOM!

Nooo! Not only did the Indians lose to the worst team around but it was also our rock-solid reliever Bryan Shaw who gave up the winning run. Tragic!

TJ House was today's starter and he didn't seem nearly as tight as he did in some of his other appearances. Maybe he's a little off-kilter from going to and from Columbus a few times? House only managed 5 innings and gave up 3 runs. Six hits and 3 walks. He left after 89 pitches. He didn't look awful but he just didn't seem as mature as before.

CC Lee, who's been back recently, only got one out in the 6th while giving up 2 hits. Nick Hagadone magically appeared and swiftly got the next 2 outs! Then we were contractually obliged to let John Axford pitch, but he actually had a 1-2-3 inning so that was surprising cool.

Bryan Shaw pitched the 8th and you already know what happened. The game was tied. He got just his second loss of the year.

But still....the pitchers should be able to get by on giving up 4 runs, right? No - left. HA! The Tribe just can't hit lefties!

They fielded a motley crew today after that long weekend series, with Mike Aviles in center while Brantley rested. Gomes was the DH so Roberto Perez was in as catcher. Murphy had the day off too with Swisher in right, and Santana at first. Then Asdrubal was having back problems so they took him out and put in Dickerson. He went to center and the Aviles experiment was over. He did manage to make one great play while he was out there!

The Tribe had 8 hits today. One hit for everyone except doo doo doo doo....Swisher, that's right. But one hit per guy doesn't do it. Neither does 8 strikeouts.

Chris Dickerson came in for Asdrubal in the 3rd, came right out and hit an RBI single! He's got 11 hits and 4 RBI now with just 10 games as an Indian. What a gem! He also fit right in by striking out with RISP. Sigh.

Gomes was randomly batting third, and he had a big RBI double in the 5th after Dickerson walked. He's been quietly heating up lately! Ten hits in his last 7 games. And 5 RBI, too.

Michael Brantley (.328) is amazing and came in to pinch hit in the 8th and got a double. Then Roberto Perez, who doesn't yet qualify as "amazing" but in fact is "promising," came up to bat and got an RBI single. Nice, kid!

Michael Brantley, as it turns out, does not seem to have much of a sense of humor. Paul Hoynes reported today that Aviles put up an "inspirational poster" of himself in Brantley's locker. And Chisenhall challenged Brantley to a bet as to who would end the season with the better average, and Brantley was all "I don't look at numbers." Yeesh, ok. Then again, carrying the entire weight of a team on one's shoulders does make one a little smarmy. Especially when the rest of the team is clearly underperforming.

Lonnie Baseball did get a hit, by the way. But now he's .003 behind Brantley.

So while it actually was the perfect time to throw some of our other players out there in the starting lineup, and give random pitchers some work, it all came down to no one being able to hit the lefty. It was the 45th game in which the Tribe has scored 3 runs or fewer - and this was the 99th game!

Looks like we've really got a good chance to win this series, though - they've run out of lefties! The next two games will be against RHP with ERA over 4. We like those kinds of pitchers, no doubt.

Tomorrow is another 8:10 start, so you've got an extra hour to mow the lawn.

Sorry no Radio Chatter tonight - I swear, Tom Hamilton was so not in to this game. He was expecting a blowout after that great Detroit series and instead got a dud. He actually gave the game to the Twins by the end of the 7th.